Fish Oil Supplement Benefits -- and Risks? Last updated: April 2017 My respect for the health and diet reporting of the main-stream media has fallen so low that I am inclined to do the opposite of whatever they suggest. So when in the same week the New York Times runs a story panning fish oil supplements, and ABC Good Morning follows up with an anti-fish-oil-supplement segment, I'm thinking it is time to give the golden capsules another try. I regularly took fish-oil supplements for … [Read more...]
Of mice brains aflame and other travesties
A note to the editors of ScienceDaily -- this is what a high fat human diet looks like. Or it might look like a plate of scrambled eggs with bacon, or a green salad with cheese, avocado, and black olives. What a high-fat human diet does not look like is that pile of buns, pizza, french-fried potatoes, and onion rings that you used to illustrate your story about a recent mouse study. The collection of carbs shown in your photo would choke a moose, never mind a poor little mouse. Oddly, … [Read more...]
Whole grain consumption and/or many other factors may help you live longer
From the headlines, you'd think that just eating more whole grain would enable you to live to a very ripe old age. "Eat Whole Grains For A Long Life, New Study Says" (Forbes). "Fiber From Whole Grains Linked To Longer Life" (Huffington Post) "More Whole Grains May Boost Life Span" (WebMD) It turns out that things are more complicated than the headlines. There are many factors determining when you bid the world good-bye, with how much whole grain you chewed your way through possibly being … [Read more...]
Red meat and colon cancer: what’s the real risk?
Life is full of risks -- some real and some statistical. Most of the risks claimed by observational studies fall into the statistical category. By "statistical," I mean "imaginary." For instance, a study published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine (online) entitled "Vegetarian Dietary Patterns and the Risk of Colorectal Cancers" suggests that eating a vegetarian diet will reduce a person's risk of getting colon cancer by over 20% . Or to put it the other way around, regularly eating red meat … [Read more...]
Eating fish makes mice fat, study claims
Just when you thought it was safe to feed salmon fillets to your pet mouse, along comes a study entitled, "Chronic Consumption of Farmed Salmon Containing Persistent Organic Pollutants Causes Insulin Resistance and Obesity in Mice." You have to wonder how many mice are chronically dining on salmon, farmed or wild. It's more likely that if a mouse fell in the water, a salmon would eat it. That would be a better meal than most farm-raised salmon ever get. It's hard to imagine the mouse winning … [Read more...]
What to do when your vegan diet doesn’t work? Go “Beyond Broccoli”
I've never been tempted to become a vegetarian, let alone a raw foods vegan, and after reading a new book by Susan Schenck, LAc, I'm glad of it. Schenck spent several years eating and promoting a raw vegan diet before realizing it was seriously compromising her health. She then curbed her carb intake and added animal-based protein. She has written about her experiences in Beyond Broccoli: Creating a Biologically Balanced Diet When a Vegetarian Diet Doesn't Work (247 pages, Awakening … [Read more...]
Obesogenic: a new word for an old idea
A commentary by Jane E. Brody in yesterday's New York Times has a promising title: Attacking the Obesity Epidemic by First Figuring Out Its Cause. You have to admit, there's logic in that approach. There's logic, too, in Brody's central claim that we live in an environment that encourages, or at least enables, frequent eating and discourages, or at least enables the avoidance of, exercise. But is that environment "obesogenic" as Brody and some of her sources claim? Does the modern world … [Read more...]
Helping the President raise awareness about childhood obesity
Happy National Childhood Obesity Awareness Month! That's right, September 2011 has been so proclaimed by President Obama. The President notes that a third of American children are obese or over-weight and urges "all Americans to take action by learning about and engaging in activities that promote healthy eating and greater physical activity by all our Nation's children." I can't find a place on the proclamation to leave a comment, so I'll do it here. Mr. President, I'm with you on the … [Read more...]
Let them eat beans! Why soda pop bans are a bad idea
Should the USDA allow states or cities to bar the use of food stamps to purchase soda pop and other sugary drinks? Or perhaps go a step further and enact such a ban itself? What the heck, why not just enshrine the ban in federal law? The New York Daily News in a recent editorial slams the feds for blocking an attempt by New York City to try the soda pop ban for two years to see what if any impact it would have on obesity rates in poor communities. The newspaper cites a four-part series on … [Read more...]
The bean that ate America
Those Americans like me with reservations about eating soy are apparently a small minority of the populace. According to a recent survey, 81% of Americans view soy as healthy. OK, the Consumer Attitudes about Nutrition survey (PDF file) was conducted by the United Soy Board (USB), so there is reason to be suspicious of its findings. Oddly, I'm not that suspicious. I think the average American doesn't know beans about soy, but is willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Just a short … [Read more...]